Get the weekly report

Corus announces Maria Hale as Vice President, Television, Head of Programming and Production.

We are pleased to announce that Maria Hale is joining Corus Entertainment as Vice President, Television, Head of Programming and Production.

Maria will be responsible for overseeing the strategic direction for Corus’ television programming decisions, including content production, acquisitions and distribution strategies across our specialty and pay channels.

With a successful track record innovating and executing national programming strategies, and negotiating content deals across TV, broadband and mobile service platforms, Maria brings more than 14 years of industry experience to Corus. As Vice President of Content at TELUS, she was responsible for TV and mobile content acquisition for linear and VOD and under her leadership, TELUS’ mobile music service became #1 in Canada.

Before joining TELUS, Maria was Vice President, Content Business Development at CHUM and held various senior management roles during her eight-year career with the company, including Vice President, CityTV, Toronto, where she was responsible for managing television operations. Under her early leadership at CHUM, she broke new ground by helping establish MuchMusic as the #1 Canadian online destination for teens and launched CHUM’s first broadband platforms, among other achievements. Maria was most recently at GameTV where she was responsible for developing cross-platform strategies and overseeing production and programming initiatives.

The following team will be reporting to Maria when she assumes her new role on April 4, 2011:

Ted Ellis, Vice President, Kids/Family Programming – Ted oversees the direction of content and schedule strategies for all of Corus’ kids and family networks including YTV, Treehouse, Nickelodeon (Canada) and CMT.

Vibika Bianchi, Vice President, Original Programming, Lifestyle, Reality, Factual – Vibika is responsible for all original unscripted programming, working closely with the Sales team on integrated content opportunities for all of Corus’ specialty and pay networks.

Jocelyn Hamilton, Vice President, Original Programming, Kids, Comedy, Drama – Jocelyn is responsible for all scripted original production and development for all of Corus’ specialty and pay networks.

Karen Philips, Vice President, Network Program Operations – Karen oversees and manages the transition, development and performance of program management systems, and is responsible for establishing best practices and strategies across Corus’ specialty and pay networks in the areas of contracts, regulatory, fund management, workflow and viewer relations.

Lynn Chadwick, Vice President, Network Content Acquisitions and Pay – Lynn oversees all aspects of Corus Television’s acquisition activities. She is responsible for negotiating program, content and equity agreements, and is working towards standardizing rights for use across all channels and platforms. In addition, Lynn is responsible for the pay and movie programming group, including DUSK and Sundance Channel.